Blaze Destroys Barn As Cows And Bull Are Herded To Safety

A raging fire fed by 5,000 bales of hay and straw Tuesday morning destroyed a 60-year-old dairy barn near South Elgin, causing an estimated $240,000 in damage.

Forty-six Holstein cows and one bull were led to safety through heavy smoke by firefighters, sheriff's deputies and dairy owners as the barn at 8 N 675 Route 25 continued to burn.

Some of the cows were injured slightly in their attempts to free themselves from yokes, which confined them to their stalls. Six cows suffered minor burns, said Michael Kenyon, of Kenyon Bros. Inc., which owns and operates the dairy.

"We had to go in and open (the yokes)," Kenyon said. "We were quite agitated at first, having to stand there and watch before we could go in. But the firefighters were right."

He said fire officials kept them back from the blaze for about 30 minutes, until they determined that the barn was safe to enter.

"We had to walk through smoke and 4 to 6 inches of water and drive (the animals) out. They were quite confused, because cows are creatures of habit. They usually go out the east side, and we had to drive them out the west.

"We're pretty happy there was no loss of life. (Firefighters) didn't have a prayer to save the building," he added.

Kenyon said the barn, which was destroyed and continued to smolder throughout Tuesday, had been operating as a dairy there more than 60 years. The family operates six other barns in the area, four of them within a mile of the damaged barn.

The 47 animals were taken to a family dairy down the road, where they were to be housed until they could be distributed to other Kenyon farms.

Fire Chief Louis Oine of the South Elgin Fire Protection District said the district was notified of the blaze at 1:11 a.m. Firefighters from St. Charles, Bartlett and Pingree-Plato fire protection districts also were summoned to help fight the blaze.

"When we arrived, heavy black smoke was pouring from the building, with flames coming out each end," said Oine, who added that 50,000 gallons of water were tanked to the fire site. It took two hours to bring the blaze under control, he said.

Kane County authorities were investigating the cause and origin of the blaze.

Authorities were looking into a report by the owners that vagrants had lived in the hay loft. Oine said it appeared the fire may have started in a section of the loft where there was no electrical wiring.